Exclusive: Skins actor Dev Patel tipped for Oscar after first film role

He could get on the bus and no one would recognise him.

He could get on the bus and no one would recognise him... but Dev Patel may be on the verge of scooping an Oscar for his very first film.

The 18-year-old has won rave reviews for his role in highly acclaimed Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire.

The movie has been nominated for four Golden Globes as well as the prestigious Screenwriters Guild awards - and critics say that Dev is a good bet for the ultimate accolade, an Oscar.

But, unless he's acting his socks off during an exclusive interview with the Mirror, he reckons that he has absolutely no chance of winning an Academy Award.

"Oh, nooo! I'm not going to get an Oscar. I'm not even going to think about it. It's too mind-boggling. It's uncomprehendable," he wails, mixing his words in an excited chatter.

Fortune could be on the young man's side, however, and the omens are promising.

A couple of weeks ago Dev took his mum Anita - his "lucky charm" - to the British Independent Film Awards.

And it was there he was crowned Most Promising Newcomer for his role as Jamal, a boy from the Mumbai slums who gets the chance to win India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.

"I don't know if luck is on my side but I do feel very lucky," he grins.

"Sir Ben Kingsley shook my hand, Sir Ian McKellen and James McAvoy were there. Before I had even laid hands on my first script, these people were making Oscar-worthy films and, here I was, sharing the same air! It was crazy. I just could not believe it. I was there with my mum and she was so proud."

However, household name status has yet to arrive for Dev, whose only previous role was the hormonal Anwar in the raunchy Channel 4 series Skins.

He goes on: "The day after I won the BIFA I was on the Tube and the lady to my right, the man tomy left and the lady opposite were all reading a London freesheet newspaper. They were all on the same page where there was a story about me.

"It was a wicked article and I looked great in the picture. It was so surreal and I was giggling to myself.

"One of the ladies looked over but, no, she didn't seem to recognise me."

Dev can barely sit still during our interview - he acts like a lurcher puppy, excitable and eager to please - and he reveals he was a bundle of energy as a kid at Longfield Middle School in Harrow, North West London.

Always the class comic, his teachers decided that he needed an outlet.

And so, at the age of 10, he started training in the Korean martial art Taekwon-do. He's not bad either - he's a black belt, was a bronze medallist in the 2004 world championships and still works out and teaches kids at the Rayners Lane Taekwon-do Academy in Harrow.

But Dev was about to be bitten by the acting bug, when he played the comedy character Sir Andrew Aguecheek in a musical production of Twelfth Night.

He was an instant success - and received a little plaque for the best actor of the year at the age of 11.

"They tried channelling my energy into musical instruments as well but that didn't work and then this school play came up. I loved it."

But his big break came when Dev's mum Anita, who is a care worker in an old people's home, spotted an advert for open auditions for Skins.

Crucially for Dev, who has never had an acting lesson in his life, it said that no formal training was required.

The diligent schoolboy was preparing for his GCSEs at the time and told his mum he couldn't go because he was revising for a school science exam.

But Anita persisted and, luckily, her son went on to win the role of Anwar Kharral in the Channel 4 series about a bunch of drug-taking, sexobsessed teenagers.

Although, as you would expect, it was not exactly ideal family viewing at the Patel house.

"It's not the sort of thing to sit down and watch with your parents," he admits sheepishly.

"I made the mistake of watching it with mum and dad and I was literally buck-naked throughout the whole of the second series which was mortifying - so embarrassing.

"I'm still a baby in my parents' eyes and they were surprised that their little son was doing all these crazy scenes.

"They weren't at all angry - they know it's just acting - although mum did say, 'Don't bring that character home.'

"The weird thing is that I'm sure a lot of the writers on Skins were influenced by Trainspotting - what with the sex and drugs and all of that - but Danny Boyle said he was shocked when he watched Skins."

The celebrated director - the man behind Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and The Beach - had auditioned hundreds of teenagers in India for the role of Jamal.

But they were all in the well-groomed, hunky Bollywood tradition. Instead, Boyle was looking more for a skinny underdog.

It was the director's 17-year-old daughter and Skins fan Caitlin who suggested Dev to her dad. And when he met him, Boyle knew that he'd found his perfect "loser".

The day after the "wrap" party for Skins, the then 17-year-old fledgling actor flew to Mumbai in India to start shooting Slumdog - an experience which proved to be far more pleasurable than his previous visit.

Dev's parents - Anita and Raj, an IT consultant - are both Hindus of Indian descent, were both born in Nairobi, Kenya, but emigrated separately in their teens.

They only met in London when it was arranged they would marry.

And Dev recalls: "I'd been dragged to India bymy parents when I was 10 to go to a family wedding in Gujarat.

"I got bitten to death by mosquitoes, had bad diarrhoea, ate the wrong food and I absolutely hated it."

In the upcoming film, which has opened to rapturous reviews in the States, Jamal is just one question away from winning 20 million rupees on the game show.

But suspicious producers then call in the police so Jamal has to explain, in flashback, how a supposedly uneducated boy from the slums knows all the answers.

As for real-life and what he plans to do next, Dev doesn't have any answers.

School was put on hold after AS levels and he isn't sure if he'll go back to do A-levels.

Dev has two agents - one in Hollywood and one in London - but he says the scripts aren't exactly flooding in yet. However, Slumdog has yet to open in most parts of the world.

Like a seasoned old pro, he has been crisscrossing the Atlantic in recent months to promote the film.

The last time he was in Los Angeles, staying at the glitzy Four Seasons Hotel, he hooked up with Skins co-star Nicholas Hoult.

They became good friends on Skins - there's only a threemonth age-gap between them - and Nick was out there filming.

"The only night I had free was the night I landed and I was so jetlagged," Dev winces.

"Nick was very bad. He came to my room and literally raided my mini-bar because we were too young to go anywhere as we're only 18."

And it sounds like the teenager learnt a harsh lesson that night.

"It wasn't a good idea," he groans. "All I'd had to eat were peanuts on the plane. Yes, we got a bit jolly."

Expect more bubbly around Oscar time, Dev. And make sure you line your stomach this time.